Final Thoughts on Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2 has been completed! This was a great game and I really enjoyed it, even through the most frustrating challenges. The game was well designed overall.

Here's what I liked:

• The music- More excellent music performed by the Super Mario Galaxy Orchestra. Personal favorites include Beat Block, Slipsand, Fleet Glide, Starshine Beach, and Freezy Flake


• Different beginning and ending than Galaxy- I was hoping that the beginning and ending would not be too similar to Galaxy, which was the case


• Same number of missions- This made sure that the game took about the same amount of time


• Green Star Challenge- Unexpected, but better challenge than replaying the game over again with Luigi again


• Interactive credits- I like credits I can interact with better than ones I just have to sit through


• Same controls- This made it very easy to pick up, because I already know how to play from playing Galaxy


• Super Guide/ Cosmic Rosalina- Although I didn't use this feature, it was nice to know that I wouldn't have to give up the game if I couldn't get through a mission


• Yoshi's many appearances


• Completely original galaxies- Beat Block, Flip-Swap, and Boulder Bowl

Pros, Cons, and Improvements over Galaxy:

Pros

• New galaxies


• New music


• New powerups


• Improved Co-Star Mode- Co-Stars can do more and feel more involved with their own character


• Improved Prankster Comet dynamics- Time stops ticking down after you complete the mission


• You can play as Luigi earlier in the game
• Improved boss dynamics- in Galaxy, to beat all but a few bosses, shaking the Wiimote is key. Bosses from King Kaliente to Bowser can be defeated by shaking the Wiimote. In Galaxy 2, there is more variety in the ways to defeat bosses, adding to the challenge

Cons

• Same swimming controls- the swimming controls in the 3D Mario games are not very intuitive and are very frustrating, causing players to swim in circles and get lost
• Same long jump/backflip/ground pound controls- these three moves all involve pressing the (Z) and (A) buttons. If they are not pressed in the correct order, the wrong move will execute, which could cause Mario or Luigi to die, like if they accidently ground pound through a cloud instead of long-jumping


• The Ice Flower and Red Star are not available


• Some planets/ galaxies were taken directly from other games with minimum alteration- Stone Cyclone, Twisty Trials, and Throwback
• Cosmic Clones- About equally annoying as Cosmic Mario / Cosmic Luigi, but more difficult to handle due to the many copies and the potential for damage. It's like watching yourself on tape delay multiple times, versus racing a ghost
• Too many remixes of the trailer theme- I like the song a lot, but it was remixed several times, which became annoying after a while. This is possibly because I watched the trailers/ transmissions a lot and just heard it too much
• Too many remixes of other Mario music- I was hoping for more original music, but there were many remixes, and some music was lifted completely from Galaxy

Was Super Mario Galaxy 2 harder than Super Mario Galaxy?

Game designers said they wanted Super Mario Galaxy 2 to be harder than its prequel. From playing both games, and taking the final two galaxies out of consideration, I found the games to be approximately equally difficult. I did not keep track of how many tries I used in Galaxy, but I remember having particular difficulty with 5 or 6 Stars, which took several tries, possibly into the hundreds. In this respect, I believe that they are equal. But some things made Galaxy 2 easier: the trailers and transmissions. Although they include depictions 0f new and previous features of gameplay. they also provide weak points and strategies to defeat many of the bosses, including Gobblegut, Digga-Leg, and Megahammer. What made the game somewhat harder are the galaxies that regulate your actions and use of the controls, such as Beat Block, and Flip-Swap. Flip-Swap, in particular, controls your ability to spin to save yourself. An ill-timed shake will send you to your doom.

Considering the games in their entirety, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is harder than Super Mario Galaxy. From my experience, this is solely due to the final galaxies. Grand Finale Galaxy is nothing like Grandmaster Galaxy. In Grand Finale, the game designers seem to say "Thanks for playing the game all the way through. As a reward, we're giving you a simple Purple Coin mission as a cool-down and wrap-up to the game." The mission is incredibly simple- they only hide one coin from you (which isn't difficult to find) and everything else is laid out clearly. There are no enemies and you couldn't die if you tried. In Grandmaster, the designers seem to say, "We want you to die. We want you to die a lot." They seem to be channeling The Chimp, in that they want to enjoy your frustrationg more.

Overall, this was an enjoyable game and I highly recommend it. What game will I play next? Just wait and see!